N90,000 FINE: HAWKERS DARE AMBODE, INVADE LAGOS TRAFFIC AGAIN

Lagos, Nigeria, July 15, 2016 – Vendors selling items in traffic are back on the street in the ever busy Lagos traffic selling wares to commuters .

The hawkers beat a retreat following a broadcast by Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode who threatened to enforce anti-hawking laws which prescribes a fine up to N90,000 for both the hawker and the buyer, after an incident that led to destruction of about 90 buses in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme when a truck knocked down a vendor selling wares in traffic on Ikorodu road.
The threat was well received among the hawkers who stayed away from Lagos traffic for days watching if the amiable governor would make anybody a scapegoat.

But they are now back in Lagos traffic. A drive through the streets of Lagos is quite revealing. Our correspondent who drove through the Lagos metropolis for two days discovered that the hawkers are back and hawking without any hindrance.
Our correspondent reported that he found some at Maryland towards the evening on Wednesday and at Berger along the busy Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

He added that his trip around Lagos from Ikoyi to Victoria Island on Thursday shows that the hawkers are now in full force selling in traffic.He said he saw quite a number of vendors on his way from Awolowo Way in Ikoyi just by the bridge linking Onikan, at Ademola Adetokumbo in Victoria Island and tens of vendors on Kingsway road in Ikoyi.

According to him, the hawkers sell plantain chips, car accessories, bread, groundnut, books, water and soft drinks and snacks among others items, adding that the vendors sell oblivious of the impending law and that they may have discovered that what the governor said was just nothing but mere threats.

The pronouncement of the governor was however received with missed blessings. While some criticized him for attempting to enforce a law that will punish the poor boys making a living from selling in the traffic, others gave him thumbs up, saying that the development will ease the menace of robberies in Lagos traffic. Others also look at the economic aspect of chasing the vendors from traffic.

Director General National Bureau of Statistics, Mr. Yemi Kale tweeted that “informal trading which includes hawking accounts for 10% of total Nigeria’s GDP, bigger than crude production.

The NBS puts informal sector contributions to GDP at 41.8 percent or about $217.3 billion to the country’s $520 billion nominal GDP in 2015 while the informal trading accounted for about 10 percent, potentially about $52 billion or N14.6 trillion which could be knocked off the national economy if informal trading is stifled in Lagos.